A STUDY ON THE Impact of Workplace Conflict Resolution on Organizational Performance

1. P.AISHWARYA
RESEARCH SCHOLAR
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY

2.  This study investigated the impact of workplace conflict
management on organizational performance in private sector
enterprises. Participants comprised 800 employees selected
through the use of simple random sampling technique. Data
were generated through the use of validated structured
questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were
employed to analyze data collected from the respondents.
Conflict is an inseparable aspect of people’s as well as
organizations’ life. The study also discovered that conflicts occur
in organizations as a result of competition for supremacy,
leadership style, scarcity of common resources, etc. If a conflict
is not well and timely managed, it can lead to low productivity or
service delivery. The study also discovered that conflict can
sometimes produce positive result, if well managed. Thus, not all
conflict situations are bad. Efforts should always be made to
ensure that the causes of conflicts are addressed as soon as they
are noticed.
 Keywords: conflict management, organization, organizational
performance and workplace conflict, conflict resolution.

3.  Definition of Conflict
 Conflict is very important for any manager. It is rooted primarily
in the fields of business, sociology and psychology, but not in
communication or education. It is complicated to define conflict
as it is difficult to come to a consensus concerning the definition
of this term (Borisoff and Victor, 1998). The easiest way to
understand the term “conflict” is to divide theories of conflict
into functional, situational and interactive. The followers of the
functional approach think that a conflict serves a social function
and those who view a conflict as situational, suggest that
conflict is an expression under certain situations. The third
theory views conflict as interactive. Functionalists usually ask
the questions: “Why is there conflict? What purpose does it
serve?” while situationalists ask: When do we have conflict?
Under what circumstances does it occur?” Interactionalists are:
“how is there conflict? what methods and mechanisms are used
to express it?”

4.  The purpose of the study to identify the
causative factors of conflict in the
manufacturing organization,
 examine the types of conflict that are
prevalent in the establishment,
 access the conflict management strategies
adopted for use in the organization and
 determine the effect of workplace conflict
management on organizational performance in
the establishment.

5.  Conflicts affect individual and organizational
performance. Resolving conflicts takes a toll on
managerial time and energy which could be more
productively spent.
 In a conflict situation, people may promote their self-
interests or personal gains at the cost of others or the
organization.
 Intense conflicts over a prolonged period affect
individuals emotionally and physically, and give rise
to psychosomatic disorders.
 Time spent on conflicts, if costed, could have been
spent doing more productive things.
 Conflict may lead to work sabotage, employee
morale problems, decline in the market share of
product/service and consequent loss of productivity

6.  TO Identify the conflict elements, emotions,
behaviour and contradictions.
 TO Identify the TRANSFORMATION changing
the orientation of the conflict and making
the different parties aware of the elements.
 TO Identify the Solution:- changing the
elements allows transformation of the
conflict direction, which leads to the
solution apparent

7.  The study was conducted within a time &
COST and is a limitation as respondents tend
to change in terms of their psychological
constructs from time to time.

8.  . Obi (2012) defined workplace conflict as an
act of discontentment and contention which
either the workers or employers of labour
utilize to put excessive pressure against each
other so as to get their demands. This view is
consistent with Henry (2009); Ikeda, Veludo
and Campomar (2005); Azamoza (2004) and
Ajala and Oghenekohwo (2002) descriptions
of workplace conflict as a dispute that occurs
when interests, goals or values of different
individuals or groups are incompatible with
each other in organizations.

9.  According to Rahim (2002) conflict management involves
designing effective strategies to minimize the dysfunctions of
conflict and enhance the constructive functions in order to
optimize learning and effectiveness of an organization. This
implies that managing conflict does not necessarily connote
avoidance or termination but the decrease of the odds of non-
productive escalation. As such, conflict management is the
method by which organizations and people handle grievances
or disputes so as to find a middle way alternative to increase
resolution, work towards consensus and offer genuine
commitment to decision-making. As observed by Uchendu,
Anijaobi and Odigwe (2013), since conflict is inevitable in
organizations, its management determines whether it will
generate positive or negative effect on the organizational
performance. The timely recognition and immediate
explication of the underlying tension before the conflict issues
go out of hand are germane to effectual management of
conflict in the workplace.

10.  Ford (2007) posited a four-way process which
includes assessment and inquiry, design,
implementation and evaluation aimed at
achieving efficacious and objective conflict
decision in the workplace. This integrative
approach is often employed to encourage
management to satisfy the needs of
stakeholders in the resolution of conflict. Vigil
and King (2000) observed that the use of
integrative style of managing conflict is likely
to create better result and higher commitment
in individuals than teams using non-integrative
conflict management. The integrative
approach broadens the understanding of the
conflict problem and increases resolution.

11.  Amendment Act (2000) and by the positive use
of this machinery for resolving conflict by
some multinational firms in the country. In
practice, this collaborative approach of
managing conflict, involves negotiation
between union and management in a process
of meeting demands, discussing, presenting
counter demands, bluffing and sometimes
threatening all in a bid to reach collective
agreement.
 Thomas (1976) also put forward some
approaches for managing conflicts. These are
avoidance, accommodation, competition,
compromise and collaboration. The avoidance
strategy is called conflict avoidance.

12.  C.Wright Mills has been called the founder of modern
conflict theory (Knapp, 1994). In Mill’s view, social
structures are created through conflict between
people with differing interests and resources.
Individuals and resources, in turn, are influenced by
these structures and by the “unequal distribution of
power and resources in the society”. (Knapp, 1994).
The power elites of the American society, (i.e., the
military – industrial complex) “emerged from the
fusion of the cooperate elite, the pentagon and the
executive branch of government”. Mills argues that the
interests of these elites were opposed to those of the
people. He theorized that the policies of the power
elites would result in “increased escalation of conflict
of weapons of mass destruction, and possibly the
annihilation of human race” (Knapp, 1994).

13.  A recent articulation of the conflict theory is
found in Alan Sears (Canadian Sociologist)
book: “A Guide to Theoretical Thinking”
(2008). According to Sears’ (2008):
 Societies are defined by inequality that
produces conflict, rather than order and
consensus. This conflict based on inequality
can only be overcome through a fundamental
transformation of the existing relations in the
society, and is productive of new social
relations.

14.  Empirical research findings have provided
insights into causative factors of workplace
conflict. Hotepo, Asokere, Abdul – Azeez and
Ajemunigbohun (2010) found lack of resources,
different expectation, competition, lack of
cooperation, interdependence and
communication problems as factors that have
caused conflicts in the Nigerian service
industry. Relatedly, in the banking sector in
Nigeria, Obasan (2011) identified unacceptable
terms of employment, poor human relations
between management and workers , non –
consultation with employees before making
key decisions affecting them, anti-union
posture of management and lack of effective
mechanism for prevention of conflict as
multiple causal factors of workplace conflict

15.  Ogunbameru (2006) classified workplace conflict
into two broad types: informal and formal
workplace conflicts. According to him, conflict in
work-relations is informal when it is not based on
any systematic organizational problem but results
directly from a source of grievance and supposedly
is wholly expressive in nature. In this connection,
the underlying sources cannot be openly seen, but
can be inferred from unconscious form of protest,
sabotage, unruly behaviour and poor work-
attitudes by employees in organizations. If the
situation is sufficiently widespread, it can
significantly affect employee job description
focus, turnover and impact on the prosperity of an
organization (Kazimoto, 2013). On the other hand,
formal workplace conflict is referred to as an
organized expression of conflict articulated
through a trade union or other workers
representatives (Ogunbameru, 2006)

16.  Traditional View (1930-1940): One school of
thought says that conflict must be avoided as
it reflects malefaction within the group.
Conflict is viewed negatively and is associated
with violence and destruction. Conflict is a
result of poor communication and a lack of
trust between people. Conflict can be
eliminated or resolved only at high level of
management. According to this view, all
conflicts should be avoided. Thus, there is
need to pay attention to causes of conflict and
correct them in order to improve group and
organization performance (Robins, 2005).

17.  This exists when there are interpersonal
incompatibilities among group members,
including personality clashes, tension,
animosity and annoyance (Jehn, 1995). This
type of conflict produces negative individual
emotions, such as anxiety, mistrust, or
resentment (Jehn, 1995), frustration, tension
and fear of being rejected by other team
members (Murmnigham and Conlon, 1991).

18.  These are disagreements about the content of
a task and work goals, such as distribution of
resources, procedures , and interpretation of
facts (John, 1995; 1997). Task conflicts include
differences in view points, ideas and opinions,
and may coincide with animated discussions
and personal excitement. In contrast to
relationship conflict, findings concerning task
conflict are not as conclusive. Task conflict has
been associated with several beneficial effects
such as improving the use of debate within a
team (Jehn, et al, 1999), which results in
quality ideas and innovation (Amason, 1996;
West & Anderson, 1996) and leads to better
service delivery (Tjosvold, Dann & Wong,
1992).

19.  This refers to disagreement about how a task
should be accomplished, individuals’
responsibilities and delegation (Jehn &
Mannix, 2001), e.g. when group members
disagree about whose responsibility it is to
complete a specific duty. Process conflict has
been associated with lower morale, decreased
productivity (Jehn, 1997) and poor team
performance (Jehn, 1999).
 Robbin (2001) defines functional conflict as
the conflict that supports the goals of the
group and improves its (group’s) performance.
The argument is that if conflict leads to
normal competition among groups and the
groups work harder and produce more, it is
advantageous to the group and the institution

20.  The descriptive study analyzing that early
recognition and paying attention to the
conflicting parties and negotiation between
parties involved in the conflict should be
adopted in resolving conflicts while force or
intimidation should never be used to resolve
conflicting parties. Force and intimidation can
only be counter productive. The required data
for the present study has been collected from
different websites also. PRIMARY data will be
Collected from structured questionnaire The
research design chosen is descriptive in nature
and the sampling technique chosen is random
probability sampling.

21.  The universe of the study includes PRIVATE sectors
organizations within the Chennai. The collected data after
being coded will be analysing using Statistical Package for
Social sciences (SPSS) and various statistical tests were
applied based on hypotheses testing the relationship
between conflict management strategies (collective
bargaining, compromise, and accommodation) and
organizational performance. Consciousness of workers
Inequitable treatment, Nature of work activities employee
perception grievance settlement, Union – management
relationship superior and subordination relationship wages
are the dependent variables.Structured questionnaire was
the main instrument used for data collection Each item of
the construct used was presented with five alternative
responses from strongly disagree to strongly agree with
numerical value 1 – 5. The questionnaire survey followed
all the required ethical considerations.CRONCH ALPHA
0.869 ITEMS 29

22. VARIABLES

 Potential opposition or incompatibility
 Vs
 Antecedent Conditions
 communication
 structure
 personal variables

 Cognition & personalization vs
 Perceived conflict
 felt conflict

: Intentions vs
 Conflict handling intentions

 Behaviour vs
 Overt conflict
 Party’s behaviour
 Other’s reaction
Outcomes vs
 Increased group Performance
 Decreased group performance

Source: The Conflict Process (Robbins, 2005).

23.  Based on the broad objective of the study and
comprehensive review of the literature, the following
hypotheses emerged.
 H1: There is a significant relationship between
workplace conflict management and organizational
performance
 H2: Collective bargaining strategy has significant
relationship with organizational performance. H3:
Compromise strategy has significant relationship with
organizational performance
 H4: Accommodation strategy has significant
relationship with organizational performance H5:
Confrontation strategy has significant relationship
with organizational performance H6: Competition
strategy has significant relationship with
organizational performance

24.  The study Going to investigate the impact of conflict
management on organizational performance in a
manufacturing organization in a reforming and
developing economy. Review of literature provided
strong evidence of integrative conflict management
strategies and their relationship with organizational
performance. The present study empirically
reinforced the results of previous studies with regard
to the link between workplace conflict management
and business performance. The study also highlighted
the importance of integrative conflict management
as a technique of changing from the destructive
status of conflict situation to constructive handling of
conflicts in the enhancement of organizational
performance in the workplace.


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